Takers: (August 27th, 2010): PG-13
Distributor: Screen Gems
Opening Weekend Box-Office: #1 with $20,512,304
Domestic Box-Office Gross to-date: $39,986,817
Gross Revenue: $39,986,817
Budget: $32 million
Director: John Luessenhop
There are very few foundational truths within the Hollywood film industry, but perhaps the most basic is that audiences love heist films. Think about it, Ocean’s Eleven, Heat, The Italian Job, Gone in 60 Seconds…the list just goes on and on; there is something about watching a cast of diverse personalities come together to break the law in a complex manner that we all love. From a marketing perspective, Screen Gems was more than aware of this fact as it introduced a diverse new group of thieves to audiences. Now, I had said in the “Short and Sweet” review that Takers represents the sole heist thriller that we had seen at the box-office this summer, and even though Inception could technically be classified as a heist film (though many would agree that it belongs in a entirely new classification all on its own), I still maintain that Takers better embodies the classic heist film that audiences have grown to love over the years. Though it’s a bit of a stretch to say that Takers has an all-star cast, the presence of such names like Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen, T.I., Matt Dillon, Zoë Saldaña, and Chris Brown is more than enough to draw a large and diverse crowd, both music and film fan alike, to the theater. In the end, Takers seemed to promise a high level of entertainment to adequately close out the summer movie season.
As can be expected from the title, Takers follows a group of professional thieves who feel free to “take” whatever they desire. The crew is composed of leader Gordon Cozier (Idris Elba), second-in-command John Rahway (Paul Walker), demolitions expert A.J. (Hayden Christensen), and brothers Jake (Michael Ealy) and Jesse (Chris Brown) Attica. After pulling off a daring bank heist, the team is approached by former team member Ghost (T.I.), who was arrested after being caught during a robbery five years ago. Newly paroled and apparently harboring no grudge for having been imprisoned, Ghost insists that the team complete one more job together, after which he will take his money and go his separate way. Though hesitant to trust Ghost, the rest of the team agrees to the heist, which they must complete with two hardened detectives (Matt Dillon and Jay Hernandez) on their trail. Though not entirely original, the plot does offer an engaging story and likable characters, which translates into a thrilling entry in the heist genre that is thoroughly entertaining.
I was very surprised by how much I actually enjoyed Takers; I had been hesitant about some of the casting choices, but together, all the actors end up bringing a considerable amount of style to the film. Whether the audience is watching the team of thieves plan and execute a heist or simply kick back and enjoy each other’s company, you can’t help but feel that these guys are just downright cool. Among the original team of “takers”, Idris Elba and Hayden Christensen give the standout performances; between leading a team of thieves and caring for his drug-addict sister, Elba’s character is by far the deepest and most sympathetic. As for Hayden Christensen, his presence on the team was surprisingly badass, which helps audiences forget that he is best known for playing a moody Jedi who whined and pouted his way to becoming Darth Vader. Finally, rounding out the cast by playing the former team member that no one is sure they can trust, T.I. makes a convincing villain…on the backs of these performances and a thrilling heist plot, Takers comes in as a stylish and completely acceptable entry in the immensely popular heist film genre.
Despite my enjoying the film, I still found plenty of elements to criticize within Takers…I may sound like a broken record at this point, but there are just to many plot elements within the film that are completely unoriginal, and what’s worse, the other heist movies that the script borrows from executed those same plot elements in a much better way. The idea of a crew planning one last job, joined by a member that they cannot trust, all while being chased by relentless detectives just on the verge of catching them, is so generic you’d think the writers were following a “how to” book when penning the script. In trying to diversify from this core outline, Takers borrows from other popular heist films. Forgetting that one of the heist scenes is almost identical to the climax of 2003’s The Italian Job, some of the plans that this team executes are complicated enough to make the Ocean’s Eleven crew jealous…the problem is that the audience is never shown enough planning or preparation for these plans to appreciate or believe that this group was actually able to pull it off. And even though there were some high points in terms of acting, there were also disappointments; not only did Paul Walker feel out of place in the cast, but he also brought nothing memorable to his role, so any other actor could have replaced him with little change. I also expected more from Matt Dillon and Jay Hernandez, but then again, they didn’t have much to work with in terms of character development. So, the film is far from perfect, but the main question that arises is this: will die-hard heist film fans be bothered by an unoriginal entry if it was able to keep them engaged and entertained?
Judging from its opening weekend box-office and current level of revenue, the unoriginal nature of Takers didn’t seem to bother audiences al all. Taking the top spot its opening weekend with just over $20 million in box-office receipts, even though such a performance barely edged out the new horror entry, The Last Exorcism, is still impressive for this newest heist thriller. With nearly $40 million in revenue in its 2 weeks in theaters, Takers has already recovered its modest production budget…it looks like Screen Gems’ aggressive marketing campaign paid off. This is far from the first time that music stars have made a transition to the silver screen, and even though it has failed many times, T.I. (who also had executive producer credits) and Chris Brown can count this attempt as a success. I enjoyed Takers, but it’s up to my readers to weigh the positives and negatives and see whether they want to give this stylish group of thieves a chance.
Overall Recommendation: Medium
